Analyze This

NPR professes amazement that the “art bubble” hasn’t burst

You have to wonder about the way the art market is covered when NPR runs this story today. Or the analysts covering Sotheby’s decide to upgrade the stock because of yesterday’s sale at Christie’s. Whatever the value of Sotheby’s stock should be, the sale at Christie’s is hardly a good indication of the quality or success of Sotheby’s sale.

With so much riding in the top ten lots in the sale, extrapolating from one sale to another (or one auction house to another) would seem to be a lousy way to measure the longer-term profitability of an auction house–or the art market as a whole, for that matter.